11_09_ Brian Schottenheimer
11_09_ Brian Schottenheimer
FRISCO, Texas – In the Cowboys' 27-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Dallas was called for 14 total penalties that totaled 153 penalty yards.
To break it down further, the Cowboys were called for holding four times, offensive pass interference three times and were penalized for an ineligible man downfield, false start, illegal shift, kickoff short of the landing zone, defensive pass interference, unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct once respectively.
In Monday's team meeting, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and his team watched all 14 together, and the four holding penalties stood out.
"We pointed it out," Schottenheimer said. "Sloppy. Not good enough. I think there was two pre-snap, which is a positive. We've been averaging about seven penalties a game, so we were twice the average. Not good enough at all. We showed all the different penalties from the PIs to the holdings."
"Start with the holdings, at the end of the day, holding's about keeping your leverage. So when you set an angle to make a block, you've got to keep your leverage. If you begin to lose your leverage, the way you keep your leverage is by moving your feet. If a guy goes to pull away, you have to let go, you have to release. Sloppy hands on our part, sloppy fundamentals. The individual this week will be really important to getting that stuff cleaned up."
Another penalty that stood out was the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, where Cowboys LB DeMarvion Overshown, who was inactive due to a hamstring injury ran onto the field to celebrate with his teammates after Quinnen Williams forced a fumble that was recovered by Shemar James. The Cowboys were moved back to their own 15 yard line and would punt four plays later. Overshown apologized for it after the game.
"Addressed it one-on-one with D-Mo first, addressed it with the football team. Totally unacceptable, and it won't happen again." Schottenheimer said.
Through nine games, the Cowboys are now tied for the second-most penalties called against them with 42, and have the most penalty yards against them in the NFL with 667. Evidently, it had an impact on their Week 9 game against the Colts and will continue to impact their season if it isn't corrected.
"It wasn't good enough, and that's why that came down to the way it came down," Schottenheimer said. "That game should've been where we win by a couple touchdowns maybe, but we let them hang around, we put ourselves behind the sticks on offense a bunch. Explained to the guys, if we don't clean that up, it's going to hurt our ability to do what we want to do."
In his Monday press conference, Schottenheimer was asked if the word "undisciplined" was a fair characterization of his team's overall performance on Sunday.
"I would say that word is accurate," Schottenheimer said. It was undisciplined. It needs to be better."
In his mind, is the penalty issue more on coaches, players or both?
"All of us." Schottenheimer said.
After getting back in the win column following a two-game losing streak, Schottenheimer and the Cowboys certainly aren't upset about finding a way to win a close game down to the wire. That said, he recognized there's work to do, especially going into Dallas' Week 10 home matchup against the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers.
"I'm proud of our guys, but I understand the discipline was not good enough yesterday," Schottenheimer said. "The penalties, I go back to the penalties. At the end of the day, we did some great things, but the penalties were not good enough. And we owned that, and we showed that. It's something that has been addressed and will continue to be addressed. But I checked the stats, we definitely won."